Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Another Country

"Strangers' faces hold no secrets because the imagination does not invest them with any. But the face of a lover is an unknown precisely because it is invested with so much of oneself. It is a mystery, containing, like all mysteries, the possibility of torment."

Content Warnings

morgmj's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

piperclover's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I have no idea how to rate this because I read it for class, not pleasure. I never would've picked it up for pleasure but there's a lot worth analyzing for essays

Content Warnings

absolutive's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This was a very unpleasant book full of toxic masculinity, abuse, non-consensual sex, abuse of drugs, abuse of alcohol, and frequent betrayal. The characters, though seemingly diverse--from the South, from France, from New York, of Italian heritage, Black, white, gay, bisexual--all acted the same and spoke in film-like snappy dialogue. It's too bad, because Baldwin has something important to say in this book about race and sexuality and capitalism in America's largest city just a few years before America truly became a multi-racial Democracy with the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. But his nonfiction or even a shorter, sharper, book with more three-dimensional characters are (or would have been) more effective. The characters have no ideals, goals, values or personalities beyond violence, alcohol, lust, rage, and a Trumpian notion of "loyalty" that honours the memory of an abusive sexual assaulter because he is one of them: their brother, their friend, or their lover.

Content Warnings

namizaela's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

"He held Eric very tightly and covered Eric’s body with his own, as though he were shielding him from the falling heavens. But it was also as though he were, at the same instant, being shielded—by Eric’s love. It was strangely and insistently double-edged, it was like making love in the midst of mirrors, or it was like death by drowning. But it was also like music, the highest, sweetest, loneliest reeds, and it was like the rain."

This was a beautiful book. James Baldwin is an amazing writer and I feel like I can't appreciate him enough, like it would take multiple rereads to discover how wonderfully he crafted this novel. He handles the theme of racism without shielding the reader from the flaws of the white liberals in the book, and without painting the black characters as people who can do no wrong. Each character interacts with their race, gender, and sexuality in their own unique way.
His writing style is also really beautiful, as shown by the quote above. Baldwin makes his prose poetic and lyrical, while still communicating his messages clearly. This book is incredible, and the only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is because of the slow, meandering pace.

Content Warnings

atticusbinch's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark reflective tense slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Another Country is very much a novel about everyday people and their ever changing relationships with each other, with nyc as the background of their problems. This book feels like an investigation or case study of human nature and how no one person stays the same their entire life, and a singular shared death of a friend can have an enormous impact on someone. It shows the human capacity of malice and disgust towards one another, but also, ownership, greed, and twisted versions of love. No one in this book is a saint, which makes this novel grounded in reality, and ultimately creates unlikability towards the characters. However, while reading, one develops their own complicated relationship to the characters, maybe simply bc the audience knows their ugly darkest secrets, and not the superficial facade that an acquaintance or stranger may see. The audience has an intimate knowledge of everything these characters go through, so it is a constant battle between viewing them as “bad” bc of their actions, but also knowing the humanity behind it. Some components of Another Country are excellent, for example, the hesitant yet strangely casual conversations between the male characters about sexuality. The questioning of one of the main characters saying to another ‘you ever wish you were queer?’ feels jarring yet honest, and adds another layer or intimacy and vulnerability that ones does not typically see male characters portray. However, there are faults as well. Particularly the treatment of the women in this books. It feels like they all have suffered the most, aside from the first main character of the story, and at the hands of their male counterparts. They are not given much dimension or a story line outside of the male characters, their whole lives seem to revolve around men, which is disappointing, because there are only three (or four) women featured in the whole book. And we only gain insight into one of the women, even though she’s not terribly interesting. Another component that was lack luster is the discussion of racial dynamics, whether it’s about interracial relationships, mixed friendships, or fetishization of black peoples. It feels like one character in particular was almost punished, for bringing it up even though it’s her lived experience and she’s trying to bring people into the light rather than keep them in the dark. Seeing a darkskin black woman be treated in this way, and worst off than any of the other characters, felt very sad and disappointing. Also, the narrative did not feel skewed in her favor, as she is the only remaining black person in the story (everyone else is white) and the audience doesn’t even get to see things from her perspective. It felt like the story wanted to make her the villain when actuality she was more of a victim than anyone else. Though I am still processing the intricacies of the novel, I do think it’s something that I’ll think of for a long while afterwards.

Content Warnings

More...